


Guardian Angel

by dovingbird



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: F/M, Flirting, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-24
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2018-01-09 22:04:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1151320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dovingbird/pseuds/dovingbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>NYC’s a big place. A lost Colton calls up Skylar for some help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guardian Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt response to "Colton gets lost in NYC. He gets worried, and calls Skylar Laine for comfort."

It was a good thing, Colton mused, that he wasn't prone to epileptic seizures or something. Otherwise it would've been all over before it even began.  
  
He stared around him at all the bright, vivid lights, all flashing, all trying to blind him, and released a quick, shaky sigh. If he'd wanted to be in Las Vegas, he'd have gone there instead of here. Who knew The Big Apple was just as brilliant, just as gaudy?  
  
He tore his map open again, but the lights, bright as they were, weren't enough to illuminate the streetsigns or the map he held. This was stupid. So maybe going around to see some of the nightlife that New York City was famous for had been a bad idea, especially when he was such an early riser. It was only ten o' clock and already he felt like he'd been hit by a truck. Some coffee might keep him going until he got back to his hotel, yes, but that would require him finding one of those trendy hipster coffeeshops that were open twenty-four hours.  
  
Colton snorted. They'd probably take one look at him and throw him out as it was.  
  
The map was shaking slightly in his hands. He looked around him, trying to remember the exact way he'd come here from his hotel, but he'd taken so many twists and turns that it was a lost cause. He was lost, irrevocably so. And it was the dumbest thing ever.  
  
So much for trying to be cool and trendy. Now he was stuck out here shivering in the chill and trying to pretend he wasn't scared. Because he was. He was scared crapless. "Jesus, help me," he murmured, more on a lark than really meaning it, and so he wasn't the least bit surprised when the son of the deity didn't appear before him and guide him back to the hotel.  
  
Something cracked in the alleyway beside him, and he looked at it with wide eyes. Okay. Creepy.  
  
He couldn't do this. Enough was enough.  
  
Colton whipped his cell phone out of his pocket and searched his phone book for a name, any name, that called out to him. And then he saw it. He hit the Call button and waited anxiously, keeping his back to a wall and his eyes constantly moving.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Skylar!" Colton nearly exploded in euphoria just from hearing those two syllables. "Jesus, I'm so glad you picked up."  
  
"Why? What's wrong?"  
  
She sounded panicked, and already Colton was beating himself up for making her worried. "Oh, I-I just...missed you. Since tour. And all." He laughed, but he could detect nervousness on his tone.  
  
For a moment Skylar was silent. And then she spoke. "Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me something?"  
  
"Pfft, that's silly," he said. He jerked his eyes toward a newspaper that blew along the street in front of him. "W-why would I do that?"  
  
"I'unno. But you're stuttering and that's a bad sign, ain't it?"  
  
"Nah, it's just freezing cold out here. I'm in New York."  
  
"New York City? That's awesome! What're you there for?"  
  
"Oh, well." He tucked his hand into his pocket, trying to suck up any body heat he could. "Schyler won some tickets to go see The Book of Mormon, so the whole family came down here." He smiled despite himself. "I think they missed me this Summer."  
  
"Yeah. Tell me about it. I barely got home before my folks wouldn't let me out of their sight. I don't know how they're gonna handle it when I move to Nashville next week." She paused, and he heard the excited grin on her voice. "So how was the play?"  
  
"Oh, I didn't get to go. Two tickets was all it was, so she and Mom went. Girl's night out and all."  
  
"...so...what're you doing, then?"  
  
"Well, Dad wanted to take a nap, so I decided I'd go out and look around the city."  
  
"At nine o' clock at night?!"  
  
"Ten, actually." He laughed nervously once more. "Time change, you see."  
  
"You're wandering around NYC by yourself at night?!"  
  
He held the phone away from his ear as she screamed out her words, wincing and waiting until she knew she was completely done before speaking again. "Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like a dumb decision."  
  
"Colton, go back to your hotel. Okay? Go. Back. To your hotel."  
  
"See, that's the problem. I'm, uh...sort of lost."  
  
She was silent. And then she sighed. "Boy, what're we gonna do with you? All right, get a taxi."  
  
"I haven't seen any for, like, thirty minutes."  
  
"Just where in the dang city are you?!"  
  
"I don't know! Some...abandoned part? I don't know. It's freaking me out too."  
  
"All right, that's it. I'm getting you back to the hotel."  
  
"But you're kind of...over there."  
  
"And you're being kind of thick. I've got Internet, you dummy." He heard a chair creak in the background, followed by the clattering of keys. "Tell me what you see around you."  
  
He looked. "...dark and scary alleys."  
  
"Jesus Christ, Colton." She sounded both nervous and exasperated. It was kind of cute. "Can you see any signs on the buildings around you? Like, at all?"  
  
He looked harder. "Umm. There's a Murphy's Subs and Grill across the street."  
  
"Okay." She drew out the word as she typed away, and he heard it followed by the soft hum of concentration she typically used. He could imagine her sucking her bottom lip between her teeth and chewing on it, and the mental image made him smile. "And where're you staying?"  
  
"The, uh, Hilton on 5th."  
  
She whistled. "Dang, boy." More clattering. "All right, I'm gonna guide you home. You said Murphy's is across the street, right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Okay. Is there a dead end on your left?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"So turn right and start walking 'til you see a..." She paused. "...a Starbucks on your right."  
  
"Got it."  
  
The progress was slow, and even a little scary when Colton tripped over a sleeping drunk man conked out on the side of the road, but with each step that he took, Colton felt more and more reassured.  
  
"Okay, the Hilton should be around the corner on your next right."  
  
It was. He wanted to melt into the ground from sheer relief. "Thank God." The words didn't feel like a slur against His name right now, an example of using His name in vain. No, he was literally thanking God for getting him back this far.  
  
Skylar chuckled on the other side of the line. "Well, I guess my map-reading skills are better than I thought."  
  
"Thank you, Skylar," he gushed, pausing to lean against the Hilton wall, much to the bemusement of the nearby doorman. "I-I just...I can't even thank you enough." He laughed too, shaking his head. "I would've gotten mugged out there if it wasn't for you."  
  
"Probably," she teased.  
  
He grinned, thudding his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. "You were my angel in the skies tonight. What would I ever do without you?"  
  
She was quiet then, for a moment, and he wasn't surprised. Those words had come out more sincerely, more delicately, more sweetly, than he'd intended. But he didn't want to take them back. Years ago Colton made a vow to himself never to regret the past. As a wise old baboon once said, you couldn't change the past. You could only learn from it.  
  
When Skylar spoke next, her voice was soft too. "Who knows?" she murmured. Then she paused. "...you'd probably have woken up tomorrow in Budapest."  
  
"You're lucky I like you so much," he teased back.  
  
They chuckled together before he told her he'd be in touch, that he had to get back to his dad before he sent out a search party, and all that jazz. But as Colton pocketed his cell phone and gave the doorman a smile and a nod he felt strangely warm and light inside.  
  
Well then. Felt like his next trip would be to Nashville, though this one would be by himself. All the better to potentially woo Miss Skylar Laine.


End file.
